Today identity politics has taken up so much intellectual space that … economic calculations do not even register the way they used to. It is all identity, all the time, and while we may easily buy into a cultural narrative about a laudable personality like Malala Yousafzai, who appeals to us as a character we can identify with, we have no patience for any structural exploration of the kinds of economic devastation our policies are causing in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries in the region.

What identity politics has ultimately led to is an uncontainable right. Through most of our modern history, the far right has been containable, because on the liberal side there was not a corresponding movement of mysticism and soul-cleansing grandeur, which is what identity politics is. The right, too, was forced to speak in the language of rationality, as was true of Establishment conservatives of every stripe following the successes of the New Deal. This went on well into the 1980s. But for the past 30 years, the right has not faced true opposition for its growing dream of nationalist mysticism, because liberals have been doing the same within their own communitarian splintering among various groups.

Paz’s most grievous sin, in the eyes of Tumblr, appears to have been her drawing of the character Rose Quartz. Paz’s drawing of the generously proportioned character, which can be found here, was accused of being too thin and thus “fatphobic.” Tumblr is well known for its community of vitriolic “body positivity” campaigners, who believe that fat people should be considered an oppressed minority.

At last the British press has given Richard Dawkins a break! In truth, I can’t remember the last pro-Dawkins piece they’ve published, although there are dozens taking the other side, every one a carbon copy of the others. Strident. Bigot. Racist. Superannuated. You know the tropes. While people have every right to differ with Richard’s ideas, the wolf-pack behavior of the British press is more like a feeding frenzy than a reasoned assessment of his ideas.

Benson puts up several more posts about Lindsay’s apology, including saying that she was too grudging in her prior post, now that she’s read Zvan’s post, and also (somewhere else) points out that she was fir-irst to accept Lindsay’s apology

Monday June 24:

Isaak, producer of Point of Inquiry also resigns from POI/CFI (as reported Tues June 25 by Watson)

In honor of the catchphrase of the just-passed Women in Secularism conference, SkepDirt will, for the next two weeks, hold a Shut Up And Listen mini-forum here in the Comments section of this article. Read more of this post